


Kiss Me Better, Doc

by maxclaims



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alcohol Withdrawal, Depression, Doctor Harvey helps out local sweetie hobo Shane, Fever Dreams, Fluff and Angst, Hallucinations, I don't do this often enough to tag well, I promise, I'll edit it if I need to, M/M, No Smut, Rarepair, Sickfic, Suicide mention, Vomiting, emeto, grammarly was my beta but mobile grammarly tries too hard, harvey is there to give it to him, he's getting therapy though, it doesn't happen and he doesn't outwardly think it I promise, it's brief i promise, no beta we die like men, shane (Stardew Valley) is emotionally constipated, shane (Stardew Valley) needs a hug, slow burn I suppose?, so if some of the grammar is wrong I apologise in advance, that's a lovely collection of tags well done max, you gotta read it to understand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:55:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24832699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maxclaims/pseuds/maxclaims
Summary: Lovely tumblr user iclimbtreestofeelalive pointed out to me that there was a lack of Doctor Harvey Helps Local Hobo content in and around the fandom so I come delivering bittersweet fluff and angst! If alcoholism and withdrawal and the stuff that comes with it triggers you or makes you uncomfortable, it's probably best if you give this one a miss, sorry buddy!
Relationships: Harvey/Shane (Stardew Valley)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 42





	Kiss Me Better, Doc

**Author's Note:**

> Again, I apologise for any mistakes and big thank you to iclimbtreestofeelalive for the inspiration I needed to change this from a first person shane/farmer to a second person shane/harvey, I'm 100000000% happier with this!

Harvey watched the scruffy man take his daily walk to JojaMart as he set up the clinic. JojaMan only moved here not too long ago, and yet he hasn't had a single day off.

"Good morning!" Harv smiles cheerfully with a wave, trying to lighten his mood. He always seems so glum.

He doesn't reply. Doesn't even glance in his direction. Did he even hear? Oh well, he didn't want to make him late for work, Joja's a bitch with tardiness. Harvey worked in one of their branches during his medical studies, but he was thankful to Yoba he managed to get out of it when he came back to the valley.

He's not too sure what his name is, but after watching him these past few days - not in a creepy way, that would be unprofessional - JojaMan lives with Marnie. Sometimes, when he's in need of a particular herb that Marnie grows for her cattle, he'll see JojaMan enter her kitchen through the barn door. Does he work for her too? He'll be in the Saloon tonight, he always is, so maybe Harv can try asking him later.

\---

After another unfulfilling shift, Harvey locks his doors and heads down to the saloon. He's determined to find out more about JojaMan. At the very least, his name.

He opens the door to see a few people scattered around. Marnie and the Mayor laughing, Willy by the door, Leah and Pam, and Sam and Sebastian and Abigail in the games room.

But the Joja guy isn't here.

Maybe he wasn't able to get out on time. Sometimes Harv's old boss would make him stay until close, even though he'd been in since open. The pay wasn't even worth it, he barely scraped rent and food.

In that case, it could be a while until he gets there. A slight bit of liquid courage should help his nerves die down a bit until then, so he nods at Gus for a beer and sits at the bar.

Eventually, a very tired looking JojaMan enters, orders a beer and stands next to the fireplace, looking just as grumpy as anyone who was just made to stay an extra four hours.

"Hello." Harvey offers him a second smile for the day.

He doesn't reply, again. He just stares into his beer.

"Hey. My name's Harvey." He tries again.

He glances up at the doctor, then realizes that he is, in fact, talking to him. He gains a grunt in return.

"Do you have a name?"

A quiet mumble.

"You gotta speak up, Lewis is on the jukebox."

"I said, I don't want to talk." He repeats bitterly.

"Harvey, come join us!" Marnie calls from the other side, where some people are dancing.

"Do you want to come too?" He asks the guy next to him.

"What do you think?" He growls.

"I'll see you around then." Another smile and he joins Marnie on the other side of the bar.

"He isn't into talking to strangers." She explains, nodding at him. "Much prefers the bottom of his glass."

"I see that." He replies. "I hope he's not drinking too much too often."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry, I'm sure he's built up an immunity to it by now. And he'll warm up to you eventually, so don't worry too much." She smiles.

"He lives with you, right?"

"Yeah, he's my nephew. Came from the city, like you, when Joja opened a store here."

"Does he help with the animals?"

She grins. "Are you looking for a second helper when Maru's not around?"

I laugh. "No, I was just curious. Does he ever smile?"

"When he's with the chickens and thinks I'm not looking. He's been too busy at work recently though, Joja lowered his pay so he's gotta work more."

"Why would they do that?"

"He turned up drunk. I offered to reduce his rent because he's gonna work himself sick and as unlikely as it may be, I miss his company. He declined the offer in the end. I guess that means he drinks less, but…" Her eyes tear up slightly and she looks down instead. 

"He'll be alright, Marn." Lewis says, linking his arm with hers to drag her to the dance. "He's a sound lad."

\---

He steps into JojaMart with the same recoil as a trauma survivor returning to their trauma site. It's just as cold and eerie as every other store as if they clone the same building over and over. He went inside in hopes of grabbing a bag of sugar for the plum pudding he planned to give Jas since it's her birthday tomorrow. It just so happened that, after scouring the aisles, he notices a particular shade of purple hair tucked under a sickening blue cap.

Okay, so maybe he came here to find him, so what? He needs the sugar too, why not pay a visit.

"Hey, sorry, could you show me where the sugar is…" He glances at JojaMan's name badge with a winner's grin, "... Shane?"

He didn't suffer four years of med school to be bad at research. If he wanted information, he could find it.

Shane sighs. "Isle four."

"Yeah, I looked and I couldn't spot it."

He rolls his eyes and Harvey follows him round to where the sugar is shown to be out of stock. "Damn it." He mutters under his breath. "I'll go check the back. Wait here."

He watches as he slumps away to the doors at the back of the store. He waves as Sam as he mops the floor while he waits, then Shane comes back empty-handed.

"We haven't got any. Pierre probably has some."

"It's Wednesday, Pierre's closed. I really needed this sugar too, for Jas's gift tomorrow."

He shrugs. "Find it somewhere else."

\--- Shane ---

The world tilts slightly with each step, but he finally makes it back to the barn.

"The Saloon shut an hour ago, Shane, where have you been?" Aunt Marnie scolds as he welcomes the warmth of the house.

"I went for a walk." He replies stiffly. They both know it's a lie, but what can he say? The truth? Don't be stupid.

"Around the whole valley? I was starting to get worried!"

As if. He could be gone all night and she wouldn't have even noticed. "I had to tire myself out somehow."

\--- Harvey ---

When he steps out into the morning sun to check for any mail, he grins with relief at the sight of a small bag of sugar with a letter taped to the side.

"We had a delivery at the end of the shift. If you can't make whatever you're making in time, Jas loves fairy roses. -Shane" He reads the scruffy handwriting out loud. He smiles at Gumball, his pet frog. "Isn't he sweet?"

Gumball croaks and starts to climb the glass of his tank, eager for his breakfast.

"You're not very excited by this, are you?"

Gumball paps a foot against the glass. Harvey shakes his head, then gets to work on the plum pudding.

\-----

Since Jas' birthday, Shane's been starting to warm up to Harvey.

They sat by the pond, drinking from his flask (somewhat reluctantly on Harvey's side, heavy liquor is different from the weak beer Gus makes) and having deep conversations, ranging from a chicken's favourite song to quirky science facts. He would start to deliver Marnie's herbs on his way to work and in return for his effort, a hot flask of coffee to perk him up a bit.

So why Shane's avoiding him completely this week, he's not too sure at all.

He wasn't even in the saloon this evening. Sam saw him take a pack of beers from JojaMart when they finished their shifts today, so they're on their way to Marnie's to confront him.

Only, when they open the door, Marnie's barely containing her tears. Harvey quickly wraps his arms around her and asks what's wrong.

"Shane… he hasn't been home in a while." She tells them through sobs. "He spent last night in the saloon because he was too drunk to walk back a-and I haven't seen him all day."

"Hey. It's okay. We'll go find him, I promise." He tells her. "Let's go look around, yeah?"

"But Jas…"

"I'll stay with Jas." Sam offers. "You two are closer to Shane anyway."

Marnie nods and thanks him, then they head out.

Shane told him that when he really needs to be alone, he'll either lock himself in his room or go to the pond. Seeing as he's not in his room, they go towards the forest.

It takes a while to find it since every direction looks the same in the dark, but then Marnie screams, spotting Shane passed out on the short pier before Harvey does. There's a worrying amount of empty cans scattered around him and in the water. The pier isn't very wide, and his head and arm hang off the edge. His head is scarily close to the surface and his arm is half under the water level.

Harvey rushes to his side and gently manoeuvres him so he's not at risk of drowning if he slips off the side, then checks him over to make sure he is just unconscious and not in a worse condition.

"He's cold, Marn." He fights to keep his voice level. It's strange, normally he can assess the situation with a clear mind, but right now his heart is in his throat. "We need to get him back to the clinic."

She nods and helps to carry him through town. Harvey takes a deep breath of cold air to sort his head out. Maybe it's just the late hour, the cold, Marnie's nerves rubbing off on him, or a mixture of the three that has his heart taking over his mind at a time like this.

Once they make it to his clinic, he's thinking clearly enough for a proper evaluation. Shane is frighteningly cold. His pulse is slow, he didn't even stir at the manhandling on the way here, and from the observation of the many empty cans, he could have been unconscious for a while before they found him.

If he doesn't clear his act up now, he's going to face liver problems for the rest of his life. Harv layers up a few blankets over him then prepares an IV drip to help with the blood alcohol level and dehydration.

"He'll need to stay here for a few nights, it's not a good idea to take him back out to the cold and a more formal setting might help push him through the detox rather than have him drink again." He explains to Marnie and pats her arm reassuringly. "I'll keep an eye on him while he's here, but now you should go home to get some sleep. It won't do anyone any good for you to stay up worrying over him."

She nods and wipes under her eyes. "Sam needs to go back home too, I'm sure Jodi's worried by now."

\--- Shane ---

Shane didn't think he could feel cosy and cold at the same time. There's a heavy weight on him, but it's comforting and grounding.

But something feels wrong. A heavy weight on his stomach is not good, and he rolls over just in time to relieve his wave of nausea over the side of the bed.

Marnie's gonna kill him for that.

Except he didn't throw up on Marnie's precious hardwood flooring. This isn't his room. Where the hell is he? The panic makes his head spin more than it already does and the pain spikes with confusion. Has he been kidnapped? Taken hostage?

"Hey, no, hey, it's alright." A firm hand on his shoulder makes him look up and see… Harvey, who pushes a cardboard bowl under his chin and rubs his back. "I'm not sure how much you drank last night, but I am certain it's gotta come out of you."

What happened last night? Why has Harvey kidnapped him? How does kidnapping him give him any benefit or leverage?

His head hurts so much. His hands are trembling real bad and he reaches for the bottle that's usually on his bedside table to dim down the hangover. His balance goes out of whack when he realises the table isn't there slightly too late and another wave of nausea has him retching into the bowl before he even realises it.

Harvey rubs and pats his back gently. "There we go. Get it all out." He says softly. The gentle rocking almost sends him back to sleep, but it stops suddenly. "What's the last thing you remember?"

He hesitates for a moment. What happened? "I remember leaving work." He mumbles.

"And then?"

He shakes his head. "Nothing after."

"Well, me and Marnie found you severely close to drowning at one in the morning. You were hypothermic, completely out cold. We were worried sick, Shane."

"So I wasn't kidnapped?"

"Of course not. You… you know where you are, right?"

"Uhh…"

"My clinic."

He nods slowly. That's a lot more plausible, and it makes him feel somewhat better. "Makes sense."

"You were dangerously drunk last night. You passed out on the pier. I bet that if we hadn't found you, you would have fallen off, especially considering how restless your sleep is."

"Well, maybe I should have fallen off."

He frowns and shakes his head. "It would crush Marnie and Jas. I wou- everyone would be miserable for months. Marn's on her way soon so get it together."

Shane puts his shaky hands under the blanket. "I'm fine. She doesn't need to come see me."

"We aren't particularly close I guess, but even I'm glad to see you awake after the state you were in. At the very least, it'll ease her worries."

The only thing she's worried about is how his dead body would pollute the pond, but he presumes Harvey doesn't want him to say that. "They'll worry even less if I wasn't shaking. Do you-"

"You're not having a drop of alcohol while you're under my roof."

"Come on, really?"

"If you stay the whole day clean, I'll make you pepper poppers for lunch tomorrow."

"I'm not staying overnight, I can't even stay the day, I have work-"

"There is no way in hell you're working like this. You'll end up throwing up on your boss and you'll get fired. And, as I heard from a certain coworker of yours, you'll steal more beer."

He's going to tear Sam's fucking head off. Batter him down with his skateboard.

"I take it you know which coworker."

"Sam?"

"He also looked after Jas when Marnie and I went out looking for you. If you get better for anyone, get better for your own daughter."

"She's not my daughter." He snaps. "Goddaughter, yes, but I'm no appropriate father figure."

Harvey makes a smug smile. "And why's that?"

He scowls. "Because I work all day and drink all night. I hardly see her."

"Then change your ways. I can recommend a counsellor in the city, I suggest you try that."

"I can't get time off."

"I bet Pierre wouldn't mind an extra hand around his shop. Why not work for him instead? Or your Marnie's? I'm sure even the new farmer will pay you a fair wage to help around with her coop. Heck, even I won't mind if you take over the reception for a few days a week. Maru's been wanting some days off to work on her new project."

"I don't need some counsellor anyway. I'm fine how I am."

"Sure you are, buddy."

Then the doors burst open and Marnie's arms are around him quicker than his reactions are ready for. "You're a stupid boy." She scolds. "Stupid, selfish boy. You could've damn well died!"

Jas is behind her, keeping her ears covered, eyes wet with tears ready to spill. She's looking between him and Marnie, worried by what she's hearing. "I don't want you to die." She whimpers and her voice wobbles.

He shuffles to the side slightly and pats the bed for her to climb up and sit next to him. "I'm not gonna die." He tells her. He hates seeing her cry. "Promise."

She holds up her pinky. "Pinky promise?"

He links his shaky finger with hers. "Pinky promise. I haven't even had a drink today."

That puts a smile on her face, even though she rarely smiles at him. "Good."

Marnie and Harvey look at him and share a knowing smile. "What?" He deadpans.

"Nothing." Harvey grins. "Just happy to see you like this.

That makes him frown. "Like what?"

"Being the good godfather your sister knew you could be." Marnie reminds him, and he goes to reach for his bottle again but it's still not magically appearing like he so dearly wishes for.

"The shaking is normal, right? The hypothermia?" Marnie asks Harvey quietly, but not quietly enough. Jas doesn't hear, sure, but he does.

"It's the withdrawal, actually." Harvey explains. "I won't let him drink while he's here."

"Thank you. It'll do him good."

\---

Another cramp shoots through him and he has to let out a grunt, hugging his stomach tighter.

"If it helps you understand what you're going through, you're actually just having a really bad hangover." Harvey says, pressing a hot bag to his stomach and rubbing his back as soothing as possible - which isn't much. If anything it's triggering his vertigo again. "Get used to it, you have about two more days before it gets any better."

The hot bag helps a little, but he still can't bite back the groan. "You're sure I can't take anything for it?"

"You need to eat with any medicine I can give you."

The thought of eating makes him gag yet again. Harvey feels his heart twist in his chest at the sound.

"Exactly. And stop moving so much or you'll rip out the drip again. Try going to sleep."

So he does, focusing more on the comfort of the hot bag and the gentle rocking from Harvey rubbing his back rather than the painful cramps, vertigo, and headache, and eventually, he feels the lull of sleep like a warm embrace.

\---

Shane goes from seeing a snake come out of his mouth to seeing Harvey pinning him down. With quicker reflexes he couldn't even imagine having, he shoves Harvey off him and he falls to the floor with a thud.

After the adrenaline rush, he feels a stinging sensation on the side of his face and an ache in his shoulders. He's not having a stroke, right? He lifts a hand to my cheek.

"Sorry," Harvey says, pushing himself back up and sitting in the armchair, "you weren't waking up."

"You slapped me?"

"I'm really sorry. It seemed like a pretty bad nightmare, wanna talk about it?"

Shane shakes his head, and they sit in silence for a while. "Sorry for shoving you." He eventually mumbles.

"Hm?"

"You heard."

"I couldn't really make out what you said, actually."

"I said sorry for shoving you."

"Oh." He raises his eyebrows in surprise. "That's okay, I kinda deserved it for slapping you so hard. Sorry, again."

"Nah." He sniffs, and it's more of a nervous twitch than because his nose is running or anything. "You were just trying to help. Thanks too, I guess."

He smiles. "It's okay. Just doing my job."

Right. It was stupid for him to think he's doing this because he cares. Stupid and selfish. Just like Marnie said.

She doesn't want him to get better, she just wanted to dump her big problem (him) onto someone else.

Shane doesn't blame her. He's sick of himself too.

"You alright there?" Harvey asks gently, grounding him with a warm hand to his shoulder. "You tend to hug your knees when you feel sad or moody."

He looks down and yeah, sure enough, he is hugging his knees. "Just thinking." He mumbles.

"What about?"

"Marnie was right. I am stupid and selfish."

"What's made you think about that?"

"You're just doing your job because you have to, not because you genuinely care about me, right? It would make you look bad if you refused to help and you need to get paid somehow."

"Why do you think I do this job, Shane?"

"To pay the bills? That's why anyone works. You go to work and get paid, then you get your own place, then go to work to get paid to pay the rent so you can stay in the same place, and it's just a cycle of constant work. We only do it because we have to."

"I do this job because I enjoy helping people, I enjoy helping you. Getting paid to do it is good, don't get me wrong, but I'd stop doing it if I didn't enjoy it. There's no point in doing a job you don't enjoy."

Shane folds his arms over his knees and rests his chin on them.

"I'm helping you because I want to see you get better. I'll tell you as many times as you need to hear it: people do care about you. Jas, Marnie, and me, at least."

He shakes his head. "Not Marnie."

"What makes you say that?"

"To her, I'm stupid and selfish. She said it herself. I don't do much to help her out. I pay a bit of rent and I feed the chickens in the mornings before I leave for work, but that's it."

Harvey frowns and, without even realising, he places his hands over Shane's. "She'll be over later, before her shop opens. I'm sure she thinks more of you than that."

He rolls his eyes. "What time is it now?"

"Half five."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Wanna try going back to sleep until she gets here?"

He nods. "Sorry for waking you up."

"It's okay, I wasn't sleeping all that well anyway." He pulls up the blanket from the floor and positions himself in the armchair so he's using one arm as a pillow and hangs his legs over the side.

"You're sleeping there?" Shane asks.

"I prefer to keep an eye on you. If you're okay with that, of course, I can go upstairs-"

"No, I get that, but there's a perfectly fine bed there."

"Well, it's not the most comfortable, really, as you can tell. They're designed around sanitation more than comfort."

"I sleep on a mattress of hay with a pillow of duck feathers, Harv, this is luxury."

They share a soft giggle, then gently fall back to sleep.

\---

In this dream, there's the same snake as before, but this time it attacks Jas and Harvey. It bites at them and Shane can't do anything but watch.

Harvey's face isn't the first thing he sees when he wakes up after it, but he can hear him talking to someone outside.

"... thinks you think very lowly of him after you called him stupid and selfish yesterday. I see where you were coming from-"

So Marnie's here. He knew he agreed with her, the goddamn liar.

"-But I have to admit, it was harsh. I'm not a therapist but we were talking-"

She laughs bitterly. "You got Shane to talk?"

"Well, it's either that or we sit in an awkward silence all day. We were talking, and I have to agree with him."

Oh.

"You did come off meaner than you probably wanted to, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"You were trying to lecture him, getting drunk next to a pond and going so hard you pass is a bad idea. But when I've been having a rough time, I do go out and have a few extra beers and I end up not thinking straight and making a dumb decision. My dumb decision is texting my ex. Shane's dumb decision was not moving from the water when he started getting dizzy."

"I'm not seeing how that could come across any differently…"

"I believe he took it more personally, as if you thought he was selfish and stupid even before that night."

"Ah. Right."

"I think maybe better first words to hear from close family would have been 'glad you're better', or if you still wanted to show that worry, 'why would you do something like that?' probably would have given off the meaning you were going for."

"Yes. I-I do see now. Outright insulting him probably wasn't the best way to go."

"I don't think it was, no."

The door opens and Shane forces himself to sit up, maybe too quickly because the sudden movement turns straight to dizziness and he needs to lie back down.

"Hey." Marnie smiles. "How are you doing today?"

"Not as great as yesterday." He shuts his eyes since that bright light above is not helping.

"About yesterday…" she wipes under her eyes. "I'm sorry."

He shrugs. "You were right."

"No. I wasn't. What you're going through can't be blamed on you, and what you did wasn't dumb or selfish."

"It's no one else's fault."

"I'm not sure if you know this because I've never really said it before, but I don't think I'd manage if you weren't around anymore."

He's not sure how to reply to that.

"I'd be quite lonely if it were just me and Jas. We don't talk much in the mornings, but this morning I made two cups of coffee and it wasn't until I placed your mug on the table that I realised you weren't there and…" she wipes her eyes again. "I didn't think that having someone sat at the table with me every day, even if we don't make a conversation out of it, would mean so much to me."

She doesn't find me hard to speak to, she just likes the comfortable silence?

"Thinking about it now, I was angry at myself and I put it out on you."

He frowns. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"I was angry that I didn't notice how bad you've been getting recently. I should have known something was wrong and I got mad at you because it was easier than getting mad at myself. I'm the stupid and selfish person here. I'm sorry."

Apparently, this has been on her chest for a while, so he lets her keep going.

"I'm sure the chickens would agree that you're better than I am." She smiles. "They don't like it when I give out the feed and yet they follow you in an orderly line."

He does crack a smile at that, and she laughs.

"I even tried whistling that song like you do, but they pecked at my ankles instead."

"You hear my whistling?"

"The walls aren't that thick. They just prefer your rendition of the Friends theme at seven in the morning. It probably helps that you know the words, but I tried!"

"How can you not know the words?"

"I know the first line and a bit of the chorus."

They talk for a little longer, but then her watch beeps and she has to go back to open the shop. When she steps out, Harvey steps in - and as much as Marnie tried, he's a much more welcome sight.

"Sounds like that went well." He comments with a grin.

"I thought the chickens only liked me because I fed them, but they prefer me to Marnie."

He chuckles. "Live for the chickens, buddy."

"They're my reason for getting up in the morning."

Well, now it's the chickens and knowing that Marnie doesn't find him so awful she refuses to talk to him.

"Wow, you're…" Harvey hands him a tissue. "You're crying."

"Oh." He wipes his eyes and nose, and now the lump in his throat is much more prominent. "Why?"

"Well typically, the person crying knows."

"I do not know."

"Then my best guess is built up emotion?"

"I've been feeling pretty fucking emotional already. I wouldn't say it built up."

"Did you just feel them, or let them out?"

"There's a difference?"

"Of course. You may feel sad, but do you repress it with alcohol or talk it out?"

Shane laughs a goofy, nasally laugh. "Then there's years of built-up emotion in here." He taps his head.

"Do you wanna talk about that?"

He shakes his head. "I feel like a toddler having a tantrum right now though."

"Why?"

He shrugs. Emotions are a foreign language to him, but a tantrum seems close.

"They call it a regression, right? Going to a younger mindset for comfort?"

"It feels more pathetic than comforting."

"Oh! You feel immature for crying for no apparent reason?"

He nods. "That's it."

They talk for even longer that day, and Harvey starts to feel like they're bonding. That night, they both feel comfortable enough for Shane to sleep alone.

\---

The snake shed its skin in the latest episode of Shane's Fucked Up Dreams. Then it wrapped around his legs to stop him from being able to run from it, and it left a trail of blood when it slivered around.

But this time, Harvey isn't here when he wakes up. It's all completely silent. According to his phone on charge nearby, it's 3 am.

Right. Shane's a big boy now who doesn't need the cute doctor by his side for every waking moment.

That's fine, he's not a toddler who needs to share their parents' bed after a 'nightmware'. He's gone back to sleep after countless nightmares.

Sure, a can or two helps, but he's still done it.

Maybe a glass of water might help, the placebo effect and all that, or whatever Harvey was talking too quickly about earlier. He stands up and takes a few steps, but then he feels a scratch at his wrist.

The IV drip. Right. That's not coming upstairs with him to the kitchen, and he can't take it out because he's pretty sure it's a bad idea to put the same needle back in. Like why syringes can't be used twice.

He checks the drawers in the bedside table. Surely there's a bottle of water in here somewhere? At least downstairs? He drags the drip pole to the front desk at reception, but instead of water, he finds Maru at the computer.

"Hey. What are you doing out of bed at this hour?" She asks.

"I could ask you the same thing." He replies gruffly and carries on looking in the cupboards under the desk.

"The wifi is better here than at home. You?"

"Thirsty. You'd think the smart guy up there would have some bottles of water around."

"I can go up and get you a glass if you'd like." She glances at his shaky hands. "Or fill a bottle that won't shatter or spill."

He sneers at her unnecessary pity. "Thanks."

"Go on back to bed and I'll bring it down to you."

He pads on behind her (he's not giving her the view she'd get if he was in front, not in this awful gown) and climbs into bed, then she comes back down with a bottle. "Thank you."

"No problem."

He takes a sip and it makes him feel that bit less icky. 

"Hello, you."

The unexpected voice makes him jump, and he turns to see someone sitting on the end of the bed across from his. He's quite chubby, with an unruly beard. He holds out a hand.

"... Hi." Shane shakes his hand. It's clammy and cold. "Who are… what?"

"My name's Shane. I was an alcoholic."

He takes his hand back cautiously.

"I died on the 20th of Spring, twenty-eight years ago."

That's when he was born. "Huh."

"I fell off a cliff. They tried to fix me up here, but I didn't want their help."

"O-oh."

"I said if I was dying, then it's my time to go. And they were my last words. I died a selfish bastard who believed that I was incapable of being helped."

What the fuck did Maru put in his water?

"But when I think back to it, everyone was trying to help. Not because they had to, but because they wanted me to stick around a bit longer. After I died, I was stuck looking at my kid cry herself to sleep every night. She started acting like me in the worst way. Acting up in school, then she got into drugs. She was driving home, high, and swerved her car. Then she joined me and we watched my aunt suffer too. She was always good and didn't make a bad choice as we did. She got better."

"Who the hell are you?" 

"I told you. My name is Shane. First time seeing a ghost?"

"Y-Yeah…"

"Then I'll leave you alone."

He gets up and walks out the door, and that's that.

A ghost. An apparition of his past or future self? He seemed to be a lot like him. Even his afterlife was terrible because he died selfishly. And his daughter died in a car accident because of him.

He didn't want any of that. Jas shouldn't die because he did. Marnie probably would get over it, but she'd lose Jas.

"Why are you crying?" A little girl sat in the chair asks. Shane recognises her as the girl who used to live in the flat next door to him, back when he lived in Zuzu City. She was always curious about him, but her mom didn't want her going near him.

He rubs his cheek and, yeah, he's crying. "I'm not sure. Why are you here?"

"I missed you."

"Me?"

She nods. "Mommy said you were arrested."

"No, I just moved out."

"Why?"

"My job moved me to another site. I work here now."

"Oh. Do you have one of those big houses?"

"Nah, I live with my aunt."

"The big lady who used to visit you? She'd bring me candies."

Marnie would visit once a week to make sure he was doing okay after she heard he'd started trying counselling. It used to be the highlight of his week, she'd bring pizza and wine. "Yeah."

"She's really nice."

He nods. "Can I ask you for some advice?"

"Okay."

"When you've been mean to someone really nice, how do you make it up to them?"

"I give them something they really like."

He nods slowly. Marnie loves pumpkin pie. He might need Harv's help since the best he can cook is microwave pizza rolls. "Okay. Thank you."

"You're welcome!" She hops off the chair. "I'm going to go home now, and you're gonna go to sleep. It's past bedtime."

So he lies down, and she leaves, and he falls asleep.

\---

"Oh. Good morning." Harvey says, coming in. "You're up early."

"Nah, you're up late. Maru's already here." Shane tells him, nodding at the clock, and Harvey stares at his watch.

"Damn. My watch stopped. Sorry."

He shrugs. Harvey's eyes now have a green tinge to them, since the redness of the white parts has disappeared from overshadowing it. His eyes are… really pretty.

"Did you sleep okay?"

Right, they were talking. He didn't forget. "Not really."

"More nightmares?"

"And hallucinations, I think."

That makes him frown, and he sits in the chair. "You think?"

"Well the first guy was dead, so he might have been a ghost, but Maru said hallucinations are normal and he was a pretty strange guy so I'm not really sure."

"Pretty strange?"

"His name was Shane, died the day I was born, lived as an asshole and suffers in the afterlife by watching how his actions affected the people he loved."

"Huh. Yeah… that is pretty strange. What about the other one?"

"It was the girl who lived next door to me in the city who missed me and essentially told me to give Marnie some pumpkin pie as an apology."

"Does she like pumpkin pie?"

He nods. "I'm pretty sure."

\---

"Uh, these dreams I'm getting…"

"The nightmares?"

"Yeah. They tend to be about snakes."

"I could do some research on that if you'd like."

"Please."

He takes out his phone and gets to a website about dream snakes. "A snake in your dream may represent something in your life that is unpredictable and out of your control. You are afraid of the unknown." Harvey reads out and glances up at me. "Withdrawal is a new experience for you, right?"

Shane nods.

"Has the snake ever bitten you, been a baby, or dead?"

"No. It bit other people though, and it came out of my mouth once."

He frowns. "Snakes are also symbolic of a hidden threat and/or a betrayal. They lie in wait waiting for the perfect opportunity to make a move. If the snake bites you, then the dream is trying to alert you to something." He reads. "A threat to whoever was bitten?"

Shane frowns too. "It was Marnie and Jas."

"Would you consider yourself a threat to them?"

"I might say something I won't mean, but I'd never physically hurt them."

"Hmm." He reads further down. "Did it ever swim or be in a box?"

"No."

"If you are afraid of the snake, then it signifies your fears of sex, intimacy or commitment. To dream that you are eating a live snake indicates that you are looking for intimacy or sexual fulfilment. Your life is lacking sensuality and passion." He continues. He refuses to look up this time, with a slight red blush to his cheeks.

"Yeah, I guess that all apply."

"You're not in a relationship?"

"I'm a slob. No one wants to date this." He gestures to himself and pinches at his stomach.

"You should see the way some people look at you. I'm sure someone in this town does."

Shane scoffs. "That's nice, but I doubt it. They don't like me like that."

Harvey's eyes fall to the floor and he toes at the tiles. "I don't believe you're as unlovable as you think you are."

"Do you… have a crush on me?"

Harvey glances up and blushes hard. "Sorry, it's unprofessional, I know-"

"Well, I'll be damned. They do like me like that."

"I- huh? You… you-" Harvey grins. "You, I'm your-"

"Sure would be cinematic if we kissed right now if that's good with you."

"That's very good for me."

"Then why are you still talking? Kiss me better, doc."

They pull in close. "Who knew you had pick-up lines as smooth as that?"

Shane smiles. Genuinely, happily smiles. "I've watched many cheesy romance films. Now shush, and kiss me."

\--- A month later

"Shane?" A man asks, coming into the waiting room. He looks at Shane, seeing as he's the only person in the waiting room.

He's tempted to do a good old 'a guy just left, he might be who you want' and run, but then he'll be back suspiciously early so he stands anyway and follows him down a corridor.

"How have things been?" The man asks to make some awkward small talk.

"Well, not great, seeing as I'm here." Shane shrugs, and they go into the man's office.

He laughs. "I get that a lot. You're from Pelican Town?"

He nods and sits opposite him.

"I've heard it's a quaint little place. Many people around?"

"Not really. I know them all by name."

"It must feel like everyone's up in your business, right?"

"I don't talk to them and they don't talk to me."

"Would you say you're close to anyone?"

"My aunt Marnie, I guess. And-" he can't bite his smile, "I'm quite close with Harvey, the local doctor."

He nods, noting something down.

"I stayed with him throughout my withdrawal and we got quite close."

He notes that too. "Withdrawal?"

Shane nods. "Alcohol."

"How would you say your addiction came round?"

"I hated a lot of things. After work, the bar is on the way home and it became routine and I didn't want to stop."

"But you changed your mind?"

"Marnie and Harv found me unconscious by the pond with my head nearly under the water and dragged me to Harvey's. He wouldn't let me leave until I stopped throwing up."

He notes more down. "Back to 'I hated a lot of things', tell me more about that."

"I work for JojaMart, that's enough to make anyone suicidal."

He laughs. "I've heard it sucks."

"Understatement of the century. But yeah, Joja, I lived in a run-down flat when I started drinking, I lived alone so there wasn't anyone to tell me to slow down. Everything fell into a boring routine I just couldn't get out of."

"Addiction is hard to beat when you're on your own."

He nods.

"You've listed that your main concern is your depression. Is that diagnosed?"

"Yeah."

"Do you take anything for it?"

"Not now, no."

"But you did, once?"

"Yeah, I don't remember what it was called."

"I'll be able to find out. Why did you stop?"

"The side effects made me miss too much work and I couldn't pay the rent so I had to stop."

He notes that. "Okay. So things have fallen into a routine?"

"A cycle of wake up, help out Harvey, go to work, maybe go to the saloon, and go to sleep."

"Have you tried getting out of it?"

"I'm not sure how."

"And that's where I come in to help!" He grins. "We call it positive event planning. Heard of that before?"

He nods. "My old therapist tried it."

"How did that work?"

"I didn't have the time or money to do the things she wanted me to do."

The therapist frowns. "It doesn't have to take your money or time. It can be as simple as changing your route home or sitting somewhere different to eat lunch, and that's going to be your first task."

"My first task?"

"A step, then. The idea is to make progress, but we both need to put in the effort. Is there a way home from work without going past the bar?"

He thinks for a moment. He could go past Clint's instead, or he could focus on seeing Harvey as he walks past rather than the saloon - that seems more like a positive event plan rather than a long walk. "Harvey's place is on the same route as the saloon, I can stop by there rather than the bar and still get back to Marnie's by my usual time."

"Are you and Harvey romantically involved?"

He nods.

"Would it be a bad idea to move in with him? If you're going to visit every morning and evening, you might as well."

That… doesn't sound like a bad idea at all.


End file.
